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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26017654">The Good Neighbors</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternally_Exhausted/pseuds/Eternally_Exhausted'>Eternally_Exhausted</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The LEGO Movie (2014)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:47:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,734</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26017654</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eternally_Exhausted/pseuds/Eternally_Exhausted</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Last is a tiny old cottage, the oldest house on the cul-de-sac, that Lucy says no one’s lived in for as long as she can remember.</p><p>Then identical twin brothers bought the place and moved in.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Emmet Brickowski/Wyldstyle | Lucy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A year ago, Emmet never would have guessed that his life would ever be so <em>interesting</em>.</p><p>But then he nearly got run over by a young woman on a motorcycle.</p><p>Mortified that she’d almost hit someone, she offered to take him out for coffee in apology. They’d hit it off almost immediately. They’d been together ever since, and had bought a house in her home neighborhood just a couple months ago, after the previous owners had decided to leave. Lucy had spoken several times of a man named Business who’d bought up all the surrounding land to build a housing development and had been hounding the people of her little neighborhood to sell ever since. The neighbors wanted out, but had been willing to sell to Lucy for a decent price. Between her motorcycle repair business and his job working construction, they managed to do well for themselves.</p><p>Moving into the suburbs was something of an adventure. Emmet had never been out of the city in his life, but Bricksburg was a charming town. The first time he’d gone with her to see the place, he’d thought the house would be like the others they passed in the development, new and neat and well-kept. He started to warm up to the idea.</p><p>And then they reached the cul-de-sac.</p><p>Emmet’s jaw had dropped at the… <em>uniqueness</em> of the other houses there. The first on the right was a large, old Victorian that the owner had painted black and dark gray, the yard a stretch of manicured lawn with no other landscaping to speak of. Next door to the Victorian was a small craftsman-style bungalow. The house itself looked nice enough, painted a drab green with white trim and a cute little porch that gave it a cozy feeling, but the garden that engulfed the front yard was nothing short of a disaster, flowers scattered haphazardly about with a plethora of kitschy garden decorations ranging from metal flowers to abstract glass sculptures to ceramic gnomes. At least it was weed-free. “That’s the house I grew up in,” Lucy remarked upon catching him staring.</p><p>Next door to that was a house that honestly looked more like a boat, with a cannon on its roof, the grass ripped up and replaced with stone. Emmet spotted a number of nautical objects dropped carelessly on the stone ‘lawn’, ranging from driftwood to oars to fish traps and rope, and even an anchor. Then was the house they had come to look at. It was mid-century modern, the décor a little artsy-fartsy, rather like the bungalow’s front yard, but otherwise fairly normal, and had a large garage.</p><p>Continuing on around the circle brought his attention to a house with a very retrofuturistic design, the concrete and steel structure painted mostly blue. Even more distracting than the house, though, was the massive model rocket in the back yard. Then was an adorable oriental-style house painted in pink and blue and yellow, every square inch of the property covered in vegetables, fruit plants, wildflowers, beehives, a chicken coop, and even a pen with a couple goats. The last house was a small cottage, the trees on the property having grown large enough to halfway hide the building. It seemed empty.</p><p>After moving in, Emmet discovered his new neighbors were every bit as colorful and interesting as the houses they lived in. He very quickly made friends with Kitty, the owner of the mini-farm, and Benny, a grounded astronaut who now worked from home designing new ships for the Space Corps. They, and Lucy’s adoptive father, were remarkably friendly people who were quick to welcome him to the neighborhood. Jonas, a retired sea captain who lived in the boat-house, was a bit harder to win over, but after a month of trying to get to know him (and with some help from Kitty and Benny) he finally managed to sort of become friends with the surly older man. Bruce had been the hardest to get to know, as he rarely left his house. Emmet guessed he also worked from home. Even after they eventually met, he didn’t seem to like Emmet. The construction worker only found out afterward that Bruce and Lucy were exes.</p><p>Finally, after living in the new neighborhood for a month, the curiosity was bugging him enough that he asked. “So what’s the deal with that cottage? Does anyone even live there?”</p><p>Lucy looked up from her laptop at him, and shrugged. “Bruce told me once that the people that built the house he lives in, used to live in that cottage first. It’s technically part of his property still. He has somebody come once a month to check on the place, make sure it’s not falling apart and that no critters have moved in, but no one’s lived there at least since Vitruvius adopted me. I think there’s been several people that have inquired about it- aside from Business, anyway- but Bruce is… <em>extremely</em> picky about who he’ll sell it to. As far as I’m aware, he <em>still</em> hasn’t found the ‘right person’ to sell it to.”</p><p>“Oh.” He sipped his coffee. “Why didn’t we look at it?”</p><p>She smirked at him. “One, I dumped him only shortly before I met you, and he’s still sore over that. Two, I needed the garage space for my shop. Besides, I had an in with the Millers anyway, and neither of us wanted Business getting ahold of any house on our turf. As long as Bruce still owns that place, we don’t have to worry about that jerk.”</p><p>Two weeks later, someone moved into the last empty house on the cul-de-sac.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Bruce! You actually sold the place??”</p><p>“What are they like?!”</p><p>“Are they nice?”</p><p>“How many of them are there-”</p><p>“Back off!” Bruce almost snarled as the neighborhood descended on him, demanding answers. He really should have expected the curious horde the moment that cruiser showed up parked in the driveway across the street from him, but they could have at least waited until later in the day rather than banging his door down first thing in the morning. “Don’t you lot have anything better to do than harass me?”</p><p>Benny grinned up at him. “Dude, it’s Saturday. So no. You gonna tell us about them or not??”</p><p>“Yeah!” Kitty piped up. “You’ve been so finicky about who you’d sell that house to, we <em>know</em> you’ve met them!”</p><p>Bruce sighed and glowered at the crowd staring back at him. He wanted nothing more than to go to bed, but knew they wouldn’t leave him be until they got their answers. “They’re twin brothers,” he decided was all he was going to give them.</p><p>“Ooh <em>twins??</em>” Benny looked intrigued. “Are they cute?”</p><p>Bruce gave him a flat stare. “If you call being a huge jerk ‘cute’, sure. Look, I had to be up way earlier than usual so I’m exhausted and I can’t really recall much about them right now. You wanna know more, go pester <em>them</em>. I’m going to bed.” He slammed the door shut behind him as he trudged back inside.</p><p>They glanced at each other. Jonas stroked his beard in concern. “Tis unusual for <em>Bruce</em> to be forgettin’ details about people.”</p><p>“Well we <em>did</em> all gang up and pester him awful early in the morning,” Emmet said. “And he did say he was really tired. Maybe he can tell us more later?”</p><p>“Or we can do like Bruce said and go say hi to them,” Benny suggested. Lucy pulled a face.</p><p>“Not so sure I wanna go meet someone <em>Bruce</em> says is a jerk. I’ll pass.”</p><p>“Me too,” Kitty added. “We already ticked Bruce off, and he’s our <em>friend</em>. I don’t wanna be giving a total stranger any more reason to be a grumpybutt. We should let them get settled in first! Who knows, maybe they’ll even come say hi to us first!”</p><p>“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Benny allowed. “Alright, we’ll wait. But if I happen to see either of them outside, I won’t hesitate!” The astronaut headed back to his house, Kitty walking at his side and pondering out loud whether she should give the new neighbors an apple pie, or cherry.</p><p>“It’s October, why not pumpkin?”</p><p>“Oh, you’re right!”</p><p>Lucy turned to Emmet. “Coffee time now?” Emmet laughed, taking her hand.</p><p>“Yeah, we can get coffee now.”</p><p>“I swear, sometimes Kitty’s more of an obnoxious early wake-up call than that rooster of hers…”</p><p>Before they knew it, two weeks had passed. No one could recall seeing a moving truck in all that time, nor was there ever more than the solitary cruiser parked in the driveway- and it stayed there all day, every day. Nor did the overgrown shrubbery get trimmed, or the lawn mowed, and not once had they seen either brother outside yet. Jonas grew more suspicious by the day. “Ye don’t think it strange that they’ve done <em>nothing</em> to keep up with their yard? Or that we <em>never</em> see them in daylight?” he muttered one evening, as everyone sat around a fire in Emmet and Lucy’s back yard roasting marshmallows. Lucy rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Joe, come on-”</p><p>“How many times do I have to tell ye not to call me that-”</p><p>“-obviously they work night shift, so they’re asleep all day. It’s probably already too dark to get any outside work done by the time they wake up, this time of year.”</p><p>“Or maybe they’re vampires,” Emmet gasped.</p><p>“Emmet,” Lucy sighed.</p><p>“No, think about it! They only come out at night, and Bruce <em>still</em> can’t really remember anything about them- vampires can do that hypnotizing thing, right?”</p><p>“I think ye be onto somethin’, lad,” Jonas murmured thoughtfully. Even Benny seemed to be considering it.</p><p>Lucy shook her head. “You’re all nuts.”  She shoved her burnt marshmallow into her mouth and stood up. “Anyway I’m going to bed now, I’ve got a date with a classic Harley first thing in the morning.”</p><p>“Oh, that sounds like a <em>very</em> good date,” Emmet teased, and smiled when she leaned down to give him a sugary kiss.</p><p>“Don’t keep me waiting too long, you goose.”</p><p>“Of course not! I’ll be in in a bit!”</p><p>“I should go to bed too, my critters don’t like to be kept waiting for breakfast,” Kitty piped up. “I’ll see you all tomorrow!”</p><p>“G’night Kitty!” Benny chirped at her.</p><p>“’Night, lass.”</p><p>The three men who remained glanced at each other. “I don’t know you guys, I kinda have to agree with Lucy,” Benny said. “That’s the most plausible explanation for why they don’t take care of their lawn or come out during the day.”</p><p>“It don’t explain why Bruce can’t remember a blessed thing about them, though,” Jonas reminded him. Benny frowned and shifted in his seat.</p><p>“Yeah, you’re right… It is really weird for him to forget when he’s been so anal about selling that house. Wonder how they managed to convince him to sell?”</p><p>“I’m telling you. <em>Vampires</em>,” Emmet insisted. “They totally hypnotized him! That’s why he can’t remember, and how they got him to sell them the place!”</p><p>“I still don’t know, Emmet. They’ve been here two weeks now and I haven’t heard of anyone dying of mysterious means, or otherwise acting weird. Well except Bruce, but weird’s normal for him.”</p><p>“Because they made him their thrall.” Emmet nodded sagely. “They probably figured out that he’s a night owl and that we wouldn’t question any odd behavior on his part.” He gasped. “Oh no! What if he was <em>really</em> so tired that morning cause they fed on him?!”</p><p>Jonas snorted, and Benny laughed. “Get real, Emmet, <em>two</em> grown-ass vampires feeding on <em>one</em> person and not killing him? Not likely.”</p><p>“Oh… I guess you’re right.”</p><p>“But hey, maybe you should go over there tomorrow. Take them that amazing shrimp scampi you like to make.”</p><p>His eyes widened. “The one with all the garlic?”</p><p>“Aye, that be a good idea. Test ‘em twice over at once,” Jonas agreed. “If one of ‘em answers in broad daylight and they take that pasta, I say that be a good indicator whether they really be vampires or not.”</p><p>“Alright! That’s settled then,” Emmet said. “Lucy’s been pestering me to make it again anyway, so I’ll do that and take them some and do a whole ‘welcome to the neighborhood!’ type thing!”</p><p>“Yeah! And let us know how it goes!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Emmet stared in surprise as Kitty trotted up to his side, a pie in her hands. She kept pace with him as they crossed the street in front of her house, and gave Emmet a sheepish grin in answer to his questioning look. “I never did get around to greeting them,” she said. “I got nervous about meeting them alone. But Benny texted me last night, said you’d be coming over today, so I thought, why not go together? I’m not sure I really believe your vampire theory, but <em>something’s</em> kind of weird about them, and this way if they try anything we’ll have each other’s backs, right?”</p><p>Emmet sighed in relief. “Oh thank goodness. I <em>really</em> didn’t want to go alone either, but Lucy thinks the whole thing is dumb, Benny’s asleep, and Jonas honestly still kind of intimidates me…”</p><p>Kitty grinned and hooked an arm around Emmet’s elbow, leaning against him. “Ooh. Is that your amazing shrimp scampi I smell?”</p><p>Emmet laughed. “It is! And loaded with garlic, too.”</p><p>“Benny said you were testing them but didn’t say how.” She smirked. “There’s certainly <em>much</em> worse ways to go than your cooking.”</p><p>Together they stepped up onto the porch. Emmet took a deep breath and pressed the doorbell, listening as it rang inside the cottage. They stood there waiting for a minute, but just when they were about to give up and turn around, the door finally opened. Emmet wasn’t sure whether to feel disappointed or relieved when the man on the other side didn’t immediately burst into flames.</p><p>He was surprisingly tall, and <em>very</em> good-looking, Emmet thought, taking in the soft dark brown hair, vividly green eyes, and broad shoulders. He wore a pair of round-framed glasses and a sleepy smile. “Hello?”</p><p>“Hi!” Kitty chirped back. “I’m Katlyn, but you can call me Kitty, and this is my friend Emmet! We’re your neighbors!”</p><p>He chuckled softly at her enthusiasm. “Alastar,” he said. “And it’s really ‘Cat-lyn’, not ‘Kate-lyn’?”</p><p>She grinned. “That’s why they call me Kitty.”</p><p>“We’re sorry it took us so long to come say hi, but we wanted to give you a chance to settle in first,” Emmet picked up. “We brought you some stuff to say welcome to the neighborhood!” He held the bowl of pasta out to Alastar for inspection.</p><p>“Oh my,” Alastar said, accepting the bowl. He popped open the lid and took a sniff. “Ohh, that smells heavenly…”</p><p>“It’s his mom’s famous shrimp scampi recipe,” Kitty explained with a snicker. “<em>Everyone</em> loves it. And I brought pie!”</p><p>“Oh!” Alastar exclaimed. “Lunch <em>and</em> a dessert! How thoughtful!” He set the pasta aside to accept the pie tin. “Thank you so much! I’m sure Cary will <em>love</em> the pasta.”</p><p>“But not the pie?” Kitty teased. Alastar smiled.</p><p>“My brother isn’t very fond of sweets. I certainly am though, and I can promise you I will enjoy <em>every</em> bite of this.” Kitty let out an excited squeal and bounced on her toes. “I don’t mean to be rude, but if you’ll excuse me, we do have work tonight…”</p><p>“Oh!” Emmet gasped. “Of course! Sorry for interrupting your sleep, and it was nice to meet you!”</p><p>“Likewise.” Alastar offered one last friendly smile before closing the door. The pair stepped off the porch, and made it back to the street before Emmet finally slumped. Kitty patted his shoulder.</p><p>“At least now we know they’re <em>not</em> vampires?” she offered.</p><p>“Yeah, but now we’re back to square one with trying to figure out what they <em>are</em>…”</p><p>“I don’t know, Emmet, he looked like a normal human being to me. Don’t think I’ve ever seen eyes that shade of green before, though. Very pretty.”</p><p>“I guess,” Emmet mumbled, still disappointed.</p><p>“Tell you what. I’ll talk to Bruce, give him some of the details we found out today, and see what he comes up with. He’s pretty good with investigative-type stuff.”</p><p>Emmet perked back up a bit. “Okay, that sounds good. And hey, maybe he can help keep an eye on them since he’s up at night too?”</p><p>“I’ll bring it up with him!”</p><p>~* *~</p><p>Benny wasn’t at all surprised when Emmet texted him later that evening that the ‘tests’ did not go at all as expected. Really, <em>vampires?</em> Emmet could be surprisingly imaginative at times. He hadn’t been very willing to answer the <em>most important</em> question though. The most Kitty had been willing to tell him was “yeah, he was cute”. Completely unsatisfactory.</p><p>So he made up his mind and took himself over to the cottage shortly after the sun set. It was surprisingly reassuring to see they had lamps on inside. Perhaps the brothers <em>were</em> perfectly normal, and they were just letting their imaginations run away with them. He knocked on the door.</p><p>Reflective sunglasses and a frown were what met him when the door opened. “…We’re not buying.”</p><p>“Whah? Oh, no, I’m not selling anything!” Benny hastened to assure him as the door started to close again. “I’m Benny! I live a couple doors down from you guys!”</p><p>“More neighbors?” came another voice from further inside.</p><p>“Just one,” the brother at the door grunted back. Benny fought not to fidget.</p><p>“Uh.” Benny cleared his throat. “So.” Well, at least now he knew Emmet hadn’t been exaggerating when he said they were <em>tall</em>. It was hard to tell what Sunglasses really looked like, dressed in a dark uniform and backlit as he was. “Welcome to the neighborhood! I uh. Wanted to extend an invitation to you both to come over, whenever you’re free. I work nights too so I don’t care if you guys don’t come til later in the day.”</p><p>“Oh, that sounds lovely!” the hidden twin said, finally coming to the door. Benny relaxed. Unlike Sunglasses, Spectacles looked pretty friendly. He fought down an amused snort. <em>Good Cop and Bad Cop</em>, he thought to himself.</p><p>“Not interested.”</p><p>“Nonsense,” Spectacles said, waving his brother off. “I’m sure Benny is a perfectly wonderful host. We’d love to come.”</p><p>Benny gave them a brilliant grin. “So… What are your names?”</p><p>“I’m Alastar, and this is Cary!”</p><p>“<em>Why</em> did you tell him that?” Cary snapped.</p><p>“It’s called being neighborly, brother dear, you should try it sometime.”</p><p>Cary huffed. “…Our next day off is Friday,” he grudgingly admitted. “We’ll see you then.”</p><p>“Rad!” Benny cheered. “I’ll see you guys around!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bruce rolled his eyes as his front door clicked open and slammed shut again. “Evening, Bruce!”</p><p>“Hi, Benny,” he sighed. The astronaut had been inviting himself over on a nightly basis since moving to the neighborhood and discovering Bruce’s reclusive tendencies. Deep down, he secretly liked that Benny was such a persistent pest- he really did get lonely, being the only night owl on the block- but he would never admit to such out loud.</p><p>“Seriously dude, you can quit it with the whole loner schtick, I mean it’s been how many years now?” Bruce kept an eye on the kitchen door. He’d learned the hard way that Benny had the quietest tread. He wasn’t disappointed- it swung open a few seconds later. “Ooh, and you already got coffee on.” Benny popped open the fridge door and dug around for a moment. “I mean, come on.” He retrieved a bottle of creamer from the door and wiggled it in Bruce’s direction. “You would have thrown this out at the first opportunity if you <em>really</em> didn’t like having company.”</p><p>Bruce sipped his coffee as his guest sat at the small kitchen table across from him, his own mug in hand. “Dunno if you heard, but Emmet did his ‘vampire test’ earlier today.”</p><p>“And?”</p><p>“They’re definitely not vampires.” Bruce snorted. Benny grinned. “I know, big surprise there. Still can’t remember much about them?”</p><p>“I’ve had bits and pieces come back. They’re tall- taller than me, though not quite as tall as Jonas.” Benny nodded. “And I remember one was surly, and the other was really chatty.”</p><p>Benny laughed. “Right on both accounts.”</p><p>“I take it you met them too.”</p><p>“Just about half an hour ago,” the astronaut confirmed. “Can I ask you a favor?”</p><p>“Depends on the favor.”</p><p>“Can you keep an eye on them? Maybe see if you can’t possibly find out what they are?”</p><p>“You really think they’re not human?”</p><p>Benny shrugged. “I dunno, man. They seemed pretty normal to me but Kitty thinks there’s <em>something</em> about them. And her instincts on people are usually pretty good.” He frowned. “Plus there’s that whole issue of you <em>not remembering the people you sold that house to</em>. That’s pretty damn concerning, you’d <em>never</em> forget something as important as that.”</p><p>Bruce heaved a drawn-out sigh, annoyed at the reminder. “<em>Fine</em>,” he ground out, and Benny grinned brightly at him in triumph. “What other clues you got for me?”</p><p>“Pretty sure they’re Irish, for one. They sure sound like it.” He drummed his fingers on his mug as he thought. “And Kitty said Alastar’s eyes were an unusual shade of green.”</p><p>“And it didn’t occur to any of you that he could be wearing colored contacts?”</p><p>“Considering he wears glasses? Not really,” Benny admitted. “Kitty thought it seemed important enough to bring up, though.”</p><p>Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright. Irish, green eyes, only seen at night. I’ll see what I can come up with.”</p><p>“Great!” Benny cheered.</p><p>“It’ll be a while before I get back to you, you realize, my <em>job</em> comes first.”</p><p>“Of course, of course,” Benny waved him off. “Totally get it.” He shoved himself away from the table and washed his mug- an odd habit Bruce was grateful for; at least Benny cleaned up after himself. “See you tomorrow!” he sang as he made his way back toward the front door.</p><p>“Hey- take your damned creamer with you!” Bruce shouted after him. The only response he got was Benny’s mad cackling and the slam of the door.</p><p>~* *~</p><p>Friday arrived surprisingly fast. Out of nowhere, Kitty had found herself up to her eyeballs in work around her farm- her orchard and her livestock had an explosion in productivity, and Benny and Emmet had both leant a hand in harvesting. Emmet had also had a remarkable work week- their current build was coming along with surprising speed. Even his boss was scratching his head, trying to figure out how they’d gotten so much work done with so few accidents or mistakes.</p><p>Friday, though, Benny’d had to retract his offer of help. He had to prepare for his guests, after all. Kitty had squealed with excitement when he told her their new neighbors would be coming to his place, and made him promise to tell her <em>all about it</em> the next time he visited. He cooked up as much of a full Irish breakfast as he dared (he drew the line at the black pudding- not that it was easy to find anyway) and prepared a pot of strong black tea, and hoped they would like it. He was working mostly on guesses, after all.</p><p>They showed up at almost seven that evening. Alastar’s eyes had lit up upon smelling the food, and even Cary’s interest had piqued a little. “Oh goodness, that smells <em>amazing</em>.”</p><p>Benny relaxed. “Oh, good,” he breathed. “I was a little worried you wouldn’t like it.”</p><p>“It’s been a while since we’ve had a proper full Irish. That was very thoughtful of you.”</p><p>“Hope you don’t mind I skipped the black pudding, though.”</p><p>That pulled a snort of amusement from Cary. “You Americans are so squeamish.”</p><p>“Hey, man, I’ve tried plenty of weird stuff, but I gotta draw the line at <em>fried blood</em>.” Alastar laughed, and even Cary gave a chuckle. “Come on, table’s this way!” He led them to the dining room where he’d set everything up. “Help yourselves. I think I made more than was really necessary.”</p><p>“This looks very good,” Alastar complimented, and sat down once he’d filled his plate, Cary sitting beside him soon after. “So what made you decide to invite us over? Emmet and Kitty just brought stuff over and had a short chat.”</p><p>Benny shrugged. “I know working the graveyard shift doesn’t really allow you to do much socializing, almost everybody’s asleep then. And I didn’t wanna impose, so. My place. Everybody’s been curious about you two, by the way. So I thought, being a fellow night owl, maybe we could hang out, get to know each other a bit?”</p><p>“It would be nice to make some friends,” Alastar murmured.</p><p>“So what brought you guys across the pond?”</p><p>“Fresh start,” Cary grunted. “Change of scenery. That sort of thing.”</p><p>Benny winced. “Uh. I take it things weren’t so grand, back home?”</p><p>“Well, no, not exactly,” Alastar allowed. “But not so bad as you seem to be thinking. I guess it’s more we felt a bit… stifled. Needed some space to <em>really</em> stretch our wings, so to speak.”</p><p>Benny laughed. “Well there’s certainly plenty of that here.”</p><p>Alastar took a bite of his sausage, and made an appreciative sound. The astronaut smirked. “This is very good, Benny.”</p><p>“Thank you!”</p><p>They spent the rest of the evening trading stories. The twins seemed to have been quite the pair of mischief makers as children; Benny was thrilled to death to hear it. They emptied the pot of tea and Benny had wound up refilling it twice more before they finally decided to call it a night. The astronaut was thrilled when Cary finally managed to relax and even chime in on the conversations, counting it as a win. Perhaps he wasn’t as surly as Benny and Bruce had initially judged; maybe he was just shy? That was an interesting thought. Kind of cute, really.</p><p>“Thank you for having us over,” Alastar said as they stood near the door. “We really had a lovely time.”</p><p>“Hey, no problem.” Benny gave them an easy grin. “You guys are great company, really. I had a blast too. We should do it again sometime, maybe even invite the rest of the crew over.”</p><p>“We’d like that,” Cary said. “Have a good night, Ben.”</p><p>“You too.” He closed the door after them, watching them cross the street back to their cottage for a moment before finally letting out a giddy squeal he’d been holding back for hours. “Ohmystarstheyare<em>sohot</em>,” Benny burbled to himself, then snorted out a laugh at himself. “Oh, yeah. <em>Way</em> too much caffeine tonight.” He started for his office, intending to work off some of his energy, and paused halfway, eyes widening.</p><p>He’d just had some inspiration for a design he’d been struggling with for <em>weeks</em>. With an inarticulate sound of enthusiasm he sprinted the rest of the way to the office to take advantage of it before he lost the ideas.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
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    <p>The doorbell rang most insistently first thing in the morning. With a snarl Cary shoved himself out of bed and donned his sunglasses, Alastar stumbling out of his own room just a couple steps behind him. “What on earth…?”</p><p>“Someone with a death wish,” Cary growled. He yanked the front door opened and glowered down at the man standing on the other side. He was older, light brown hair graying at the temples, and wearing a gray suit. He gave Cary a winning smile.</p><p>“Good morning! I apologize for not coming to introduce myself sooner, I was only recently made aware that someone had finally moved into this lovely cottage!” He held a hand out. “The name’s Business, President of the Brick’s End homeowners’ association.” Cary looked down to the offered hand, then back up to the man’s face, simply arching one brow over his glasses. Business dropped his hand, but plowed on anyway. “As such, it is my duty to inform you your yard does not meet HOA standards-”</p><p>“Was it really too much trouble to find out we <em>work nights</em> before you decided to drag us out of bed?” Cary cut him off. Business gaped at him. “’Sides, I’m very sure this property is <em>not</em> part of your HOA, so bug off.”</p><p>“I-”</p><p>Cary slammed the door in his face. Alastar bit his lip, trying not to start snickering at the indignant spluttering he could hear on the other side of the door. “’Night, G,” Cary muttered, trudging back to his room. His twin smiled at the old nickname.</p><p>“Sleep well, B,” he returned.</p><p>~* *~</p><p>Benny made his way over to Jonas’ front porch, where the retired sea captain himself sat smoking a pipe. An opened bottle of rum sat nearby. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?” Benny greeted.</p><p>“Aye lad, tis perfect.” Benny sat down next to him. “I hear ye met our new neighbors?”</p><p>“I did, yeah. They’re an interesting pair, about as different as night and day- you can still tell they’re brothers though. Also Cary’s not really a jerk like Bruce said, I think he’s actually just shy and comes off as kind of… brusque? He was actually kind of fun once he relaxed, though.”</p><p>Jonas gave him a long look. “Hm,” he said at length, and puffed out a smoke ring in silence.</p><p>“’Hm’? That’s all you’ve got to say?”</p><p>“Frankly, lad, I be astounded yer not gushing about him.” Benny blinked at him. “Yer smitten.”</p><p>“Well yeah they’re really hot, but I don’t think I’m-”</p><p>“Yer smitten,” Jonas repeated, and chuckled. Benny huffed at him. “So how do they strike ye?”</p><p>The astronaut shrugged. “They’re just… normal dudes, man. Nothing weird about them, I don’t think. I mean they’ve got some quirks but I figured it’s just a cultural thing, you know?”</p><p>“Cultural thing?”</p><p>“They’re Irish.”</p><p>“I see.” The quiet stretched on for a while. Benny shivered as a breeze blew past them. “Mayhaps I should be meeting them meself.”</p><p>“You know, I think you should, I think you guys would actually get along pretty well.” Benny perked up then, bouncing slightly. “I just had a thought.”</p><p>“Aye?”</p><p>“I know Busybody’s been hounding us about it, but you know what? We should totally still have our Halloween party this year!”</p><p>“Benny…”</p><p>“No, man! He doesn’t own us, and I’m not gonna let him bully us into giving in! This is <em>our</em> turf, these are <em>our</em> homes! Not part of his damn development! And besides…” He gave a devious grin. “Our new neighbors <em>are</em> cops. They might be able to help us in getting Business off our backs for good.”</p><p>“…Ye’ve got a point. Alright, lad, we’ll have our party this year. I’ll bet ye anything Emmet will be thrilled to death.” Benny grinned and wriggled.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
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    <p>As expected, Emmet was thrilled to death with the idea. The moment Benny brought it up to him, he was spouting ideas for decorations and food. “Geez, Emmet, slow down!” Benny laughed. “The rest of us would like to have a hand in planning this, too!”</p><p>“Sorry,” Emmet said, giving him a sheepish grin. “I just really like parties, you know? I’ve never been invited to many…”</p><p>“I know,” Benny commiserated, patting his shoulder. “This one will be a blast, I promise. Let’s go grab Kitty, she usually has some awesome ideas too.”</p><p>“Okay!”</p><p>And thus the ‘party committee’ was born. The three conspirators spent every moment they could spare together, discussing music and food as they worked on decorations. Emmet and Kitty would handle the food, they’d decided, and it took them only a day to work out a menu of sorts. Benny was insistent on adding the Ghostbusters theme to their playlist.</p><p>“You think they’ll really come if we invite them?” Emmet asked.</p><p>“Well I mean they accepted my invitation the other night,” Benny pointed out. “I think the real issue will be whether or not they have to work Halloween night.”</p><p>“I hope not. I think I’d actually really like them there.”</p><p>Kitty gave Benny a meaningful glance. He still hadn’t said much about their visit.</p><p>“I think you would too, honestly. They’re both actually pretty nice. Cary’s not actually as much of a grouch as Bruce made him out to be, I think really he’s just shy. He was pretty fun to talk to once he relaxed.”</p><p>“So nothing ‘weird’ about them?” Kitty pressed.</p><p>“Nah, not really.” Benny shrugged. “Just a couple of normal guys that felt stifled by their tiny hometown and wanted to get out and explore a bit. They told me about some of the crazy shit they got up to as kids, they talked a <em>lot</em> about their parents- they sound like a really sweet old couple- and Alastar mentioned they’re actually adopted. So yeah, nothing out of the ordinary.”</p><p>Kitty hummed to herself, but didn’t push any further. Her mind had latched onto the ‘adopted’ bit, but if Benny trusted them, they were as good as family. Not like any of the rest of them on the cul de sac didn’t have their own bit of weirdness anyway.</p><p>~* *~</p><p>Halloween arrived quickly. They were lucky in that it was a Saturday that year- that gave them all day to put up the decorations and make the food. Benny, Jonas, and Lucy were in charge of setting up as Emmet and Kitty worked in their kitchens to prepare their Halloween feast. A few nosy neighbors from the development watched as they worked, but didn’t interfere. Lucy was certain she saw at least one of them making a phone call, though.</p><p>“How much you wanna bet that Karen’s calling Business?” she muttered. Jonas glanced over to where she was looking.</p><p>“Don’t pay them any mind, lass. We’re not theirs to worry about, nor are they ours.”</p><p>“And if he decides to crash our party?” she asked.</p><p>“I have it on good authority our new cop neighbors will indeed be attending tonight,” Benny answered with a grin. “Alastar certainly seemed thrilled when I gave them the invitation. Maybe Cary can play up the grumpy attitude and scare Busy off for good.”</p><p>“One can hope,” Lucy laughed. “Honestly I’m rather sad now I haven’t had the chance to meet them yet.”</p><p>“You will in a few more hours!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>AAAAAAAA sorry this is short, it's been fighting me for a while now :C</p>
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